Reflection

I don't even know where to begin when thinking about reflecting on what I have learned in this class. I can honestly say that this class was extremely beneficial to me, and you can't always say that about every class that you take.

The topic that is in the forefront of my mind at the moment is the writing process. When we first discussed the writing process in this class, I kind of thought to myself well that was a nice reminder. I didn't think much beyond this nice reminder until I had to observe and apply the writing process. Actually, I can say that this incident rang true a couple of other times as well. I didn't truly grasp the concepts that we talked about in class and until I observed them in my field experience or was asked to apply those concepts in some other way.

Normally you might not hear a student say that they enjoyed having to write up observations. I can truthfully say that in the moment I do no enjoy writing up observations either. However, I have learned that I learn more and have a deeper understanding of concepts and topics when I observe them taking place in a classroom and then have to connect what I observed back to my readings.

In general, I have found myself reflecting more. You always hear, especially in Teacher Education, that one of the teacher's most important tasks is to reflect. Reflect on the lesson that you just taught, reflect on what went well, reflect on what could have gone better...I hear it in all of my classes. It may just be because of where I am at on my journey towards becoming a teacher, it may have been because I've heard it so many times that it finally just stuck, or it may have been a result of this class, either way I am reflecting more willingly than I have in the past. I have found that reflecting is indeed useful and sometimes a bit fun (especially when you realize that you actually do understand a concept that you thought you had no idea about).

As far as things that I will take with me to my future classroom goes I know I will willing and excitedly be taking the writing process and probably writer's workshop. Of course, you never know what kind of class that you will have before hand, but after I have seen the writing workshop take place in my field experience and talking with the teacher of that classroom about it I definitely see it's benefits. I will also be taking books galore to create a reading enriched atmosphere. And most importantly, my Intro to Language Arts textbook, just in case there is something that I forget! :)

Field Experience

I have truly enjoyed my field experience this semester. I had the opportunity to observe a great classroom of students who were ready and eager to learn and a teacher who was just as eager to teach them.

I would say that my field experience definitely made my course readings more meaningful. There were some topics that we discussed in class such as reading and writing workshop where I felt like I was always forgetting the details and the steps. For awhile when we were discussing reading and writing workshop in class all I saw it as at the time was a bunch of steps to follow. However, being able to observe a writing workshop a couple of times, I am now able to see how helpful it really can be in the classroom. Yes, there are steps in a writing workshop but now I am able to see the meaning behind those steps. I was fortunate enough to see how an effective writing workshop is conducted.

I will say that sometimes the connection between my course readings and what I was seeing in the classroom did not always immediately jump out to me. My reflections and looking for how what I observed connected to our readings was helpful for me as well.

Overall, I had a great field experience and would be willing to do it all again!

Peer Conferencing

I think it is very helpful to have someone else look over my paper before I turn it in. I always peer conferencing for many reasons. First off, the person revising and editing my paper have never seen my paper before. They are reading it for the first time and are able to catch mistakes that I am not always able to catch. Sometimes when I have been working on a paper for a length of time, when I re-read my paper I end up reading it the way it should be, the way it is in my mind, instead of reading exactly what is written. Also, sometimes when writing a paper it is easy to leave out minor details about a subject that you as the writer already know about. Having someone else revise my paper ensures that my paper makes sense to a reader who has no knowledge of the subject that I am writing about. Sometimes when someone else looks over my paper they approach the topic or a portion of the paper from a different perspective that I had not thought of.

I believe that peer conferencing has many benefits. However one downfall of peer conferencing in the classroom could be that the students expect their peer to "fix" their paper for them. Some may not submit their best first draft because they know that their peer will provide ideas and edit the paper for them. Other than this downfall, I believe that peer conferencing can certainly work in a K-5 classroom.

I believe that peer conferencing could also be used in a middle/secondary content specific classroom. This could be used for science lab write-ups, history papers, book reports, etc. However, if having one person revise and then other person edit a paper takes up too much time you could have one person read through the paper twice: once for revising and once for editing.

Reading and Writer's Workshop

I have searched my memory and I cannot specifically pinpoint anything that I can confidently say, "Now, that took place in a reading or writing workshop." I do, however, remember learning everything in units. For instance, if the class was reading a book together, then suddenly everything we were doing in class seemed to be connected to the book in someway. I do wish that my classrooms in elementary school would have participated in literature circles. The most experience, and only experience, that I have had with literature circles have taken place in college. Literature circles are a great way to discuss literature and connect literature to personal experiences. Certain roles within the literature circle also connect the literature to history which brings in other subjects such as social studies.

I'm not sure if the classes that I was in, in elementary school, went about writer's workshop correctly. I don't remember if we had a full hour to work on our writings but I know that there were some other aspects of a writer's workshop that were present. I specifically remember going through all of the stages of the writing process before producing a final copy of my paper. We all started our papers at the same time but all continued at our own pace. I enjoyed this. However, more times than not, I remember simply turning my paper in. There were very few times that we had the opportunity to share our work with our peers. I believe that just turning papers in can sometimes change a students purpose of writing to writing for the teacher instead of writing for themselves.

Assessment

Assessment can be a scary word, or at least for me it can be. When I think of assessments I automatically think of testing. I understand the concept of testing students on topics and concepts that they should know, but I believe that there doesn't always need to be a test to assess students learning. As we learned in class there are many ways to assess students learning.

In my future classroom I would like to use projects, with a rubric, to assess students learning. I remember that in elementary, middle, and even high school I would prefer a test over a project. A project meant more work than a test. If there was a test I could sit down to study (aka memorize) what I needed to know, take the test, and be done. A project meant that I had to sit down and put in a good amount of effort and creativity to get it done. However, looking back, I realize that the material that I "studied" for a test I no longer remember. I simply memorized what I thought I was expected to know and then forgot all about it after I turned in the test. With projects, I had to not only know certain concepts but I also had to apply them. Also, because I used these concepts in context I was more likely to remember them later on.

I believe that rubrics are great because as the student you know exactly what is expected of you and can plan accordingly. There is less pressure in creating a project than a test because there is room for mistakes. In a project, if you make a mistake you have more time to catch your mistake and correct it than you do in a testing situation.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

One book that I definitely want to use in my classroom is The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. When I was in elementary school, I remember this book as being one of my all time favorites, and when I am working with children today I still love reading this book to them.

Knowing what I know now, I would say that I liked this book so much because of the point-of-view that it is told from. This book exemplifies the story element of point-of-view. It is not often that you have the opportunity to hear a classic story, such as The Three Little Pigs from a different point-of-view and that is what made the book so fun.

One theme of the book is that you cannot always believe what you hear because not everyone sees a situation the same way. An activity that can help further this theme is to have the students share an experience where they did not see a particular situation the same way that someone else did. Another activity is to have the students write one of their favorite books from a different point-of-view.

Writing worth reading

When I first began to think about the question, "What makes writing worth reading?" I had no idea where to begin. Is it something as simple as it is grammatically correct and error free? Is it something a little deeper such as the topic of the writing or the way the writer uses literary devices to intrigue their readers that makes it worthwhile? I believe the only way to approach this question is to answer it for myself.

I believe that there are many components that work together to make writing worth reading. A few that come to mind are: accuracy, imagination, thoughtfulness, and, of course, the topic. The topic of a piece of writing or the plot of a book is what draws me in first. If the topic of the writing is something that I am interested in then I will usually find that reading worthwhile. If the plot of a book is intriguing and there is creativeness in the way the author writes I am drawn in. I included accuracy and thoughtfulness in my list of components because I believe that it is extremely important for there to be accurate facts in articles and historical readings. I do not think it is worthwhile to read something that is historically inaccurate unless it is made clear that the writing is meant to be fictional. When I mentioned thoughtfulness, I was thinking along the lines of something does not have to be 100% error free to be worth reading as long as you can tell that the author wrote thoughtfully and carefully.

It goes without saying that what makes reading worthwhile is different for each individual reader. There are many aspects of writing that make it worthwhile to read. I never realized that this question could be so challenging to answer. However, I believe that an interest in a topic or issue would probably be one of the top reasons why people would find writing worthwhile.

Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I believe that this statement is false. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say, "I don't care what people say about me" but the truth is that words do carry power. I know, for me personally, I try not to let what some people say bother me, and this may work but only some of the time.

Words carry the ability to encourage and lift up a person or tear someone down. I can't count the number of times that someone has taken the time to say something nice to me that ends up brightening my whole day. I think that it is important for people to understand the power that their words carry, and I think it is especially important for teachers to help point this out to their students.

Phonics vs. Whole Language

I learned language through whole language. I remember reading short picture books that included site words. There was also always a word wall on the wall of my classroom. Though I grew up during the age of "Hooked on Phonics" I never remember learning language through phonics. However, I believe that schools today are starting to focus a bit more on balanced literacy. At the daycare that I work at implement a program called "Zoo Phonics." Zoo Phonics teaches children the sounds of letters using zoo animals. Along with phonics, all the classrooms have labels placed around the room indicating various toys and center locations. I understand that a daycare is not the same as what is implemented in the public schools systems but they are still building foundations for learning language through phonics and whole language.

I believe that my past learning experiences have impacted me both as a student learner and as a future teacher. As a student learner I have always struggled with the sounds of long and short vowels. I feel this is something that I might be more confident in if I had a stronger background in phonics. Also, based from my experience I see how both whole language and phonics play an important role in the learning of language. Since I can now see this, I believe that I will make a greater effort to have a balanced literacy program in my future classroom.

The Six Language Arts

The six language arts are: reading, writing, listening, talking, viewing, and visually representing. Out of these six topics the two that surprised me the most were talking and viewing. When I was in school talking seemed to be looked down upon. Talking in class was considered inappropriate. Even when we were working on other language arts activities such as writing and acting out a skit, I always assumed that the emphasis was on the plot and details of the story not talking. Viewing was a surprise to me because even though I remember watching the movie to a book that we had recently read, it was always conveyed to us students that watching this movie was a privilege and that the privilege could easily be taken away.

I believe that viewing and visually representing should be included on the list of language arts. Even though these two topics may not have jumped out to me as language arts I see now how they are important. Viewing is something tht everyone does all day every day. Viewing includes: billboards, commercials, reading on the internet, and watching films. However, if we are going to include viewing in the list of lanugage arts then I think it is important for teachers to convey the importance of viewing to their students. For example, instead of just telling students that they are going to watch a film on the book they had just read they need to also be informed of the importance of viewing through films, commercials, etc. in the language arts.

Visually representing is an important aspect of the language arts because it allows students to create meaning through writing, illustrations, etc. I believe that lerning has a bigger impact when students can create their own meaning. By drawing an illustration of a scene in a book they are are able to make sense of what they have just read. Through this illustration the students have created their own interpreations and meaning of the reading.

I have always associated language arts with mostly reading and writing. From what I do remember of my language arts classes, the majority of it consisted of reading and writing. We read book after book and wrote papers on each. I believe that some teachers may focus on one or two of the language arts more than the others, but I do not believe that this means that some are more academically important than the others. All the language arts are important for functioning in daily life. I would say that my preferences for the language arts have not changed all that much over the years. I now appreciate some of the language arts more so than I did in the past, but it does not mean that I now prefer them.

Learning to appreciate the process

I actually have a love-hate relationship with blogging. I have recently returned from a semester abroad in Italy where my first experiences with blogging took place. Blogging is something I enjoy after it's done. I have learned that I am notorious for making sure that I don't find time to blog about my experiences. I am not a fan of sitting down to reflect on and share my experiences with others but an glad that I did so after the fact. I have a feeling that this opportunity to continue blogging will remind me to try to enjoy the blogging process.